RE: What would make me accept the existence of a deity?
January 23, 2013 at 1:07 am
(This post was last modified: January 23, 2013 at 2:22 am by Celi.)
(January 23, 2013 at 12:57 am)CapnAwesome Wrote:The fact that the question is hypothetical doesn't change the answer. When one possible explanation is divine, and another is non-supernatural, the latter will always be more likely because the very thing that makes something supernatural is its impossibility. If I got a message supposedly from God every morning straight into my mind, some sort of technologically-achieved telepathy would seem infinitely (literally) more plausible than God. I don't think that's dogmatic.(January 20, 2013 at 2:11 am)Celi Wrote: What exactly would that entail, though? I think any scenario involving miracles that would seem to confirm God's existence is bound to be invalidated by Clarke's Third Law. If a powerful being appeared and did something that seemed impossible and godlike to us, we would have no way to determine whether it was accomplished through a greater understanding of the universe than ours, which is just sufficiently advanced technology, or a deity performing miracles.
It would be good enough for me. It's kind of funny that you guys are being this stubborn. Do you really expect god(s) to appear tomorrow and you to nitpick at him? Of course not, because there is no god(s). If everyone got a god broadcast into their minds every morning would you all nitpick and be so dogmatic about it? If it did happen I would have to accept that as plausible positive evidence. Nothing like that is every going to happen though. So I safely remain an Atheist and always will be.
Practically speaking, of course, if a being repeatedly displays godlike powers, there comes a point where you have to sort of accept it as being an immensely powerful being. But as for whether it was supernatural rather than technological, I would always remain agnostic. I really can't think of any evidence that would convince me otherwise.
